8FOLD/META: So, What's the Deal with Those Numbers?

Tom Russell joltcity at gmail.com
Mon Jun 16 18:54:13 PDT 2014


Canny observers will note that (almost) all Eightfold stories published since the year began have indicated which "story number" it is. With the first issue of Mighty Medley, for example, we proudly presented our 100th publication. Medley no. 2 was our 101st. The second issue of Nonfiction had a bracketed [102] underneath the logo, while the third issue of Weird Romance had a 104 stuck in the header.

(For those keeping track, the first one hundred counted Jolt City # 17-and-a-half, as well as both versions of Template # 2. And though they have multiple stories in each issue, each Mighty Medley still counts as one "story".)

Mostly, this is just me being nerdy, and it also serves the purpose of making RACCie eligibility posts easier to rattle off. I'm going to start standardizing this nifty little feature using the format [8F-xxx], where "xxx" is the Story Number. So, [8F-114] would be our one-hundred-fourteenth publication, [8F-115] the one-hundred-fifteenth, and so on.

Mostly, again, this is me being a huge nerd. But it's also due to a couple of exciting things on the horizon. I am talking about Event Stories-- stories running through multiple issues of multiple Eightfold titles. We haven't really done this kind of thing before-- the closest thing to it was our Kinky/Doomed Romance crossover, "Cut Out My Heart".

These Event Stories are big stories, but they're not Events in the sense that there's going to be a core miniseries with a bunch of tie-ins, preludes, epilogues, etc. It's more that these are going to be stories with several inter-related facets. Like a universe/continuity in miniature, yet still part of the wider Eightfold tapestry. To help identify a story as part of one of our Event Stories, it will feature an Event Story Number in addition to an Eightfold Story Number. (Again, mostly just me being nerdy, and making it easier on myself when compiling a list of the different stories that make up a certain Event.)

Two such Events will be launching this summer. The shorter of these, and the one closest to a traditional crossover type story in terms of narrative and scope, is VOX DEI, and concerns Gregory Dingham's return. VOX DEI stories will be indicated with a [VD-##].

Our other Event, THE PULSE WAR, is something more ambitious and sprawling, taking place over a much longer period of time. My anticipation is that THE PULSE WAR project will unfold over the space of not the next few months, but the next few years. PULSE WAR stories will be indicated with a [PW-##].

So, when you see these numbers, now you know what they will mean!

Eightfoldians old and new are welcome (but of course not required) to participate and can e-mail ye olde editor for details and brainstorming.

==Tom


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